Weinstein was easy, Hollywood pedophiles won't be

It only took the media about 13 years
to bust Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for his sexual depredations
once reporters had the story in hand.

But that story will prove to be relatively easy on the media. There
is another, trickier Hollywood story the nation’s newsrooms have been
sitting on longer than Weinstein was stalking young women.

For years, powerful men in Hollywood
have been preying on young boys, and the media have remained mute
largely for fear of offending the LGBT lobby.

In its article on Weinstein’s demise, the Washington Post’s Stephanie
Merry alludes to the problem. “Corey Feldman,” she writes in something
of a throwaway line, “has also talked about the abuse he endured as a
child and the fact that his friend and co-star, the late Corey Haim, was
raped at 11 years old.”

This one sentence is the only major media reference to the Hollywood
pedophile scandal in the week since the Weinstein story broke. This is a
sordid tale, made all the more scandalous by the failure of the media
to tell it.

The story last surfaced in May 2016, at least in Hollywood. The
immediate cause was a comment made by “Lord of the Rings” star Elijah
Wood, who began his Hollywood career as an 8-year-old.
During an interview with the London Sunday Times to promote his most
recent movie, the subject of famed BBC DJ Jimmy Savile came up.

After Savile’s death, it was learned that he had sexually abused as
many as 400 children, boys and girls, over the course of his six-decade
career.

Wood commented that “something major was going on in Hollywood” as
well. He added, “It was all organized. There are a lot of vipers in this
industry, people who only have their own interests in mind.”

When this interview surfaced in America, Wood backed off and said he
had no firsthand experience with such abuse, but this may have been his
way of saving his career.

He described Hollywood as a place “where adults have more direct and
inappropriate connection with children than probably anywhere else in
the world.”

Feldman spoke to the suicide of his friend and fellow child actor
Corey Haim. “He had more direct abuse than I did,” said Feldman.

“With me, there were some molestations, and it did come from several
hands, so to speak, but with Corey, his was direct rape, whereas mine
was not actual rape. And his also occurred when he was 11.”

“I know every single person that interfered with his life, and he knew every person that interfered with mine,” Feldman added.

“[Haim’s rapist] uses intimidation and threats as a way to keep
people quiet. And all these men were all friends,” said Feldman. “Ask
anybody in our group of kids at that time: They were passing us back and
forth to each other.”

Feldman was unwilling to name names. In light of the fear that kept
so many of Weinstein’s victims silent, his reluctance is all the more
understandable.

“California conveniently enough has a statute of limitations that
prevents [prosecution] from happening. Because if I were to go and
mention anybody’s name I would be the one that would be in legal
problems, and I’m the one that would be sued.”

To his credit, Hollywood Reporter’s Seth Abramovitch did not hold
back on his questions, asking: “Do you think this problem – adult males
in the entertainment industry preying on young boys behind closed doors –
still persists?”

“Oh, absolutely,” said Feldman. “It’s more now than ever because
nowadays you can use the Internet to create fake profiles and fake
accounts.”

Abramovitch reached out to another child star of Feldman’s
generation. That person confirmed his account. And there the story died.

It remains to be seen whether anyone in the major media will have the
nerve to pick it up. If editors and producer do not, they are as
complicit as the men in Hollywood who continue to prey on little boys,
some of whom, like Corey Haim, never get over it.